As in the post above, that team was capable of exciting winning, maybe even better suited to it with some of the flair players in the squad. As Wayne Bennett would say, don't die with the music in you. Or as the Brian Smith coaching school would say, die with the ball in your hands, and kick on the 5th.

Whilst I think the monkey thing is OTT, I do agree that Anderson was far from the perfect coach and indeed the whole Brian Smith stable of coaches have similar flaws, i reckon he'd have us on a much steadier ship right now.

Let's see what Saturday brings. I'm almost over last friday and am starting to feel unduly positive again.

No to Anderson. Yes to him coming to coach our defence but no to his attacking flair. Having one move in rugby league i.e. the loop around move, is no longer good enough. Look at Hull on Friday. They weren't mega but still had good ball control and more than one move in their playbook which gives them at least one more than Anderson had.

You're assuming Anderson hasn't adapted his coaching style in the years since he has been gone. Millward used to hate the notion of defence yet Leigh defended well under him and Cas were showing signs of increasingly good defence prior to the tragedy which resulted in Millward taking time off.

The return of Daniel Anderson could be just what this rather mentally weak side needs.

That all well and good but he isnt coming so we have to deal with what we have.

Whilst i agree with what you say about going in without an experienced halfback (it would help immensly right now if we had one) can i just mention,Pryce who wasnt a 6 ( Anderson would of had to agree his signing for the position ),Lockyer who started as full back,Widdop who started at full back, and im sure there are many other examples that prove starting at fullback doesnt rule you out of being a halfback.

Aha, I see where you are going with this. Wellens started at half back before becoming a full back, you are suggesting him as the solution to our half back problem?

I think we can reshuffle our deck all day long, in the end the team on the pitch is good enough, we've not been hammered, but they are hardly at full tilt of their capabilities either.

Exactly, weary not be firing on all cylinders but we have been a gnats kipper from winning all of these games. Somerimes things just don't go for you, at the minute things are just not going saints way. Better now than on October.

If you think Anderson was 'far' from the perfect coach (God knows what he would have needed to be to be perfect seeing as there are only so many trophies a team can win)and................now you are feeling 'unduly' positive about meeting a shockingly awful bradford team.What a strange juxtaposition wondering how much positivity you felt was 'undue' under our finest coach contratsed to your tongue in cheek optimism (you are being sardonic ,are'nt you?)

Mmmmm gnats kipper,sounds inviting if we had come from 20 points behind and nearly plucked it by a gants whisker but to be up front and have other teams do a 'Saints' on Saints doesnt make it sound so never say die optimism we are poor no gettin away from it.Even if we had won we are still a poor outfit and this 'wait till October HOPEFULLNESS' IS ALL WELL AND NOBLE BUT WERE CACK

Nice use of the word finest.

As our most successful coach is Milward.


Anderson was not a poor coach, but neither was he our most successful.

I'm not happy with the tendancy of some Saints fans(same ones who would have supped lager out of his sweaty clog when Saints where at their pomp) who come out of the closet and deride Andersons achievments ,fans are very fickle .With fans like that who needs enemies?

Don't worry, I'm certainly not contradicting myself. Whilst I'm surprised how many people agreed with me as he seems like the 'golden coach' to most Saints fans I have met, Iike I stated earlier in the thread I have never been a fan of his. This is a coach who was able to leave Nick Fozzard out as we had four props better than him for crying out loud, that squad would have won things with Cullen coaching them. Yet we played as if we had nothing outside of those props half of the time.

Perhaps it's you that thinks the fans are deriding his achievements. Most of the responses I read that are not that in favour of him returning appear to be more along the lines of putting a context around what he achieved so as to provide a more balanced viewpoint to the inevitable rose-tinted spectacles effect.